Nationwide Race Thread -Darlington

[DanicaFan]

Race 9 of 33

VFW Sports Clips Help A Hero 200

Location - Darlington Raceway , Darlington, SC

Course Type - 1.366 Mile Oval

Race Distance - 147 Laps / 200.8 Miles

Date & TV Schedule - Friday, May 11th - Pre-Race - 6:30pm Eastern / Green Flag-Approx. 7:30pm Eastern - ESPN 2 / Sirius Radio -channel 90 & MRN

Practice Sessions -
Friday, May 11th -8:30-10:30am Eastern

Qualifications- Friday, May 11th -3:35pm Eastern

[DanicaFan]

2011 Nationwide Darlington Spring Race Information

Royal Purple 200

2011 Pole Sitter - Kyle Busch (Quals Rained Out-No Time)
2011 Winner - Kyle Busch
Number of Cautions -5 for 28 laps
Lead Changes - 11 lead changes among 5 drivers - (Busch, Edwards, Kahne, Sadler, Allgaier)
Length of Race - 1 hour, 40 minutes, 56 seconds
Average Speed - 119.364 mph
Margin Of Victory -3.677 seconds

[DanicaFan]

Darlington Raceway

Track Facts -

Turns 1 & 2 -25 degrees banking, 79 ft. width
Turns 3 & 4 - 23 degrees banking, 62 ft. width
Frontstretch - 3 degrees banking, 1,229 ft. length, 90 ft. wide
Backstretch - 2 degrees banking, 1,229 ft. length, 90 ft. wide
Pit Road length -2,025 ft., width -46 feet
Pit Road Speed -45 mph

[DanicaFan]

Entry List

1. #01 Mike Wallace
2. #2 Elliott Sadler
3. #3 Austiin Dillon
4. #4 Danny Efland
5. #6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
6. #7 Danica Patrick
7. #08 Matt Frahm
8. #10 Jeff Green
9. #11 Brian Scott
10. #12 Sam Hornish Jr.
11. #14 Eric McClure
12. #15 Blake Koch
13. #18 Denny Hamlin
14. #19 Tayler Malsam
15. #20 Joey Logano
16. #22 Brad Keselowski
17. #23 Jamie Dick
18. #24 Casey Roderick
19. #30 James Buescher
20. #31 Justin Allgaier
21. #33 Brendan Gaughan
22. #36 Ryan Blaney
23. #38 Kasey Kahne
24. #39 Josh Richards
25. #40 Erik Darnell
26. #41 Timmy Hill
27. #42 Josh Wise
28. #43 Michael Annett
29. #44 Mike Bliss
30. #46 Chase Miller
31. #47 Scott Speed
32. #50 TJ Bell
33. #51 Jeremy Clements
34. #52 TBA
35. #54 Kurt Busch
36. #70 David Green
37. #74 Mike Harmon
38. #75 Scott Riggs
39. #81 Jason Bowles
40. #87 Joe Nemechek
41. #88 Cole Whitt
42. #89 Morgan Shepherd
43. #99 Travis Pastrana

[DanicaFan]

Jeff Green will be replacing Eric McClure for this race and be driving the #14 car. Tony Raines will now be driving the #10 car. Derrike Cope will be driving the #70 car.

[DanicaFan]

Kurt Busch topped the speed chart in this morning's Nationwide practice session. Below are the top 20 in practice.

1. #54 Kurt Busch - 171.740
2. #3 Austin Dillon - 171.405
3. #11 Brian Scott - 170.922
4. #2 Elliott Sadler - 170.484
5. #18 Denny Hamlin - 169.924
6. #22 Brad Keselowski - 169.906
7. #12 Sam Hornish Jr. - 169.859
8. #88 Cole Whitt - 169.701
9. #6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - 169.596
10. #20 Joey Logano - 169.549
11. #38 Kasey Kahne - 169.502
12. #44 Mike Bliss - 169.286
13. #33 Brendan Gaughan - 168.798
14. #36 Ryan Blaney - 168.498
15. #30 James Buescher - 168.215
16. #31 Justin Allgaier - 168.152
17. #7 Danica Patrick - 168.037
18. #99 Travis Pastrana - 166.698
19. #19 Tayler Malsam - 166.585
20. #87 Joe Nemechek - 166.478

[Lee Roy]

Kurt Busch topped the speed chart in this morning's Nationwide practice session.

Cool.

[harvick#1]

great job nascar you screwed up again, thanks for letting Cup drivers still race in the lower series and better yet, wreck the Nationwide drivers on a restart with 5 laps to go and not penalize Logano, to make matters worse, he wins, pathetic

[beachbum]

great job nascar you screwed up again, thanks for letting Cup drivers still race in the lower series and better yet, wreck the Nationwide drivers on a restart with 5 laps to go and not penalize Logano, to make matters worse, he wins, pathetic

Logano won because Keselowski did to him what he was trying to do with Sadler - bump draft to the front. Logano and Sadler had done it the previous restart and it really worked.

What struck me about Darlington was that there were only about a dozen really competitive cars. The number of start and parks and low budget teams keeps rising. Take away the Cup drivers, and the Nationwide series starts to look like an expensive ARCA or K&N series

[Lee Roy]

What struck me about Darlington was that there were only about a dozen really competitive cars. The number of start and parks and low budget teams keeps rising. Take away the Cup drivers, and the Nationwide series starts to look like an expensive ARCA or K&N series

Agreed. I went to the Richmond Nationwide race and I got the same impression, even more so in person. This series would be dead without the cup drivers and teams.